Thursday, August 04, 2005

[NBA] Retired Jerseys: Honor And Absurdity

It all began on July 4th, 1939, when in honor of the dying LOU GEHRIG; the New York Yankees become the first team in sports history to “retire” a player’s uniform number. That day, Gehrig’s #4 jersey would become a fitting tribute to baseball’s lore, and a new way to celebrate our most beloved athletic heroes began.

Twenty-four years later, the NBA retired it’s first number. On October 16, 1963, the Boston Celtics retired ED MACAULEY’s #22 jersey. Apparently, it was so much fun, they did it again ten days later by retiring the #14 jersey of BOB COUSY. Since then, 156 more NBA players have had their number retired.

Most recently, the Utah Jazz retired JOHN STOCKTON’s #12 jersey. Stockton’s jersey should soon be joined by the jersey of KARL MALONE, and Indiana will likely retire the jersey worn by REGGIE MILLER as soon as next season. So, to fully appreciate the grandeur and the absurdity of this sports tradition, lets take a look at the history of retired jerseys in the NBA.

FAST FACTS:

- 158 jerseys have been retired.

- The #15, #22, and #32 jerseys have been retired the most. Each has been retired 7 times.

- The Boston Celtics JIM LOSCUTOFF refused to have his #18 retired. He wanted DAVE COWENS to have the number. The Celtics agreed to hang a banner that read “LOSCY” instead. The #18 was eventually retired for Cowens.

- The New York Knicks have twice retired jersey #15: for EARL MONROE and DICK MCGUIRE.

- The Miami Heat have retired 1 jersey, in honor of MICHAEL JORDAN, even though Jordan never played for the Heat.

- WILT CHAMBERLAIN is the only player to have had his jersey retired by three teams: The Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, and Philadelphia 76’ers.

- Two players have had two different jersey numbers retired by two different teams: JULIUS ERVING - #32 by the Nets and #6 by the 76ers, and OSCAR ROBERTSON - #1 by the Bucks and #14 by the Kings/Cincinnati Royals.

- PETE MARAVICH has his #7 jersey retired by the New Orleans Hornets and the Utah Jazz. He played for the New Orleans Jazz.

- Four players that died during their careers have had their jersey numbers retired by the teams they were playing for at the time of their death: REGGIE LEWIS - Boston Celtics, MALIK SEALY - Minnesota Timberwolves, DRAZEN PETROVIC - New Jersey Nets, and BOBBY PHILLS - Charlotte (now New Orleans) Hornets.

- The highest jersey number to be retired is #613 for former New York Knicks coach RED HOLZMAN.